The transitions from school to higher education and employment can have a significant impact on an individual’s lifetime potential. Earlier in 2023, we conducted a literature review to help us understand the challenges that girls in low-resource settings face when making their transitions. In this article we reflect on the findings of the report, the promising interventions it highlights, and some key lessons for policymakers in facilitating women's education-to-career transitions.

Barriers to Women's Education-To-Career Transitions

Inequity in Building Foundational Skills

Although gender parity in primary education has increased in most parts of the world, progress has been slowest in low-income countries. Even when children are in school, not enough of them develop the basic foundational skills required for later learning and transitioning to the workplace. Globally, only 40% of young people meet minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics; this drops to 19% in Central and South Asia and 12% in Sub-Saharan Africa, and girls perform worse than boys overall.

Disparities in Developing Core Competencies

In low-resource contexts where poverty and gender inequalities intersect, structural differences in the life paths of boys and girls mean that they have different experiences of education-to-career transitions. Girls and young women in particular encounter multiple gendered barriers that take a heavy toll on their education-to-career transitions. Consequently, a higher proportion of young women are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) - in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda, for example, the chances of young women aged 20–24 being NEET are 20% higher than they are for men.

Results from large-scale employment surveys in lower- and middle-income countries suggest that young people who develop a range of core competencies (mainly foundational, transferable, digital, technical, and vocational skills) are better equipped to secure, retain, and thrive in work. However, girls and young women face a number of gender-related barriers to education, along with disparities in labour force participation, and this prevents them from developing these core competencies. Girls and young women have lower rates of access to and participation in school, fewer qualifications, a higher drop-out risk, and fewer opportunities to participate in technical and vocational training.

Read the full article about women's education-to-career transitions at Education Development Trust.